Transfer car



June s, 1943.

Filed Jan. 16, 1941 TRANSFER CAR E. W. SCH ELLENTRAGER 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 24 asr 342s 24 s3 23 3o '3D INVENTOR EUGENE w SCHELLENTRAGER ATTORNEl June 8, 1943. E. w. SCHELLENTRAGER 2,321,253

' TRANSFER CAR Filed Jan. 16, 1941 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 mln- FIG-2 m v NTOR IN EUGENE w SCHELLENTRAGER ATTORN EY.$l

June 8, 1943. E, w, SCHELLENTRAGER 2,321,253

TRANSFER CAR Filed Jan. 16, 1941 3 Sheets-Sheet 3,

FIG.` 3

m//f-/fnM/w g Q INVENTOR. m N T EUGENE W. SCHELLENTRAGER W BY a E T-REY;

Patented June 8, 1943 TRANSFER CAR Eugene W. Schellentrager, Shaker Heights, Chio, assigner to The Atlas Bolt & Screw Company, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio application January 16, 1941, serial No. 374,641

5 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in transfer cars adapted to move oven Cars from a receiving or storage station to any one of a line of furnaces or ovens and to remove cars from the Aovens and move them to storage or cooling stations.

An object of the present invention is to provide means located entirely on the transfer car and adapted to move a load on the transfer car, such as an oven car above referred to, either into or out of an oven without the use of extraneous connecting members. Another advantage of my invention is that the transfer car may move between parallel lines of mutually facing ovens and an oven car or other load may be moved from the transfer car into an oven on either side thereof, or loads may be pulled out of the ovens onto the transfer car all without the use of any equipment other than that carried by the transfer car itself.

Other objects of the invention here disclosed include the provision of novel mechanism for performing the above named functions together with pushing and pulling means for transferring loads to and from the transfer car, with power means for driving the pushing and pulling means, power means for moving the transfer car along its track, and novel interlocking mechanism for preventing movement of the car except when the pushing and pulling means is in normal centered position on the car.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear in the accompanying drawings and specification and the essential features thereof will be set forth in the claims.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic plan View of the transfer car and the ovens adapted to be served thereby; Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the transfer car; Fig. 3 is a sectional View taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is an end elevational view of the car of Figs. 2 and 3; while Fig. 5 is a fragmental sectional view taken substantially along the line 5 5 of Fig. 2.

Many industrial installations require a car adapted to function in the manner disclosed herein. A specic form of such a problem is illustrated in Fig. l where parallel lines of annealing ovens are shown at I and I I with doors at their inner ends through which oven cars loaded with material may be passed in and out as will be readily understood. Such oven cars may be stored for instance at the receiving station such as I2 on rails I3 from which they must be moved to the transfer car I4 which will carry them down the line of ovens depositing one in an Oven 011 either side of the track and removing other oven cars from the annealing ovens for transfer to a cooling station such as I5 or to some other point for further processing.V Prior apparatus used for this purpose has either been cumbersome or required extraneous coupling members for use bevback relation (Fig. 5).

tween the transfer car and the oven car when moving them on and off the transfer car or they have required some apparatus or parts located on the oven car itself. If any of the operating parts are located on the oven cars they are subject to intense heat during the annealing operations with resultant deterioration of the parts and with increased difficulty in the upkeep of the oven cars. My-improved invention therefore provides a novel arrangement whereby all of the apparatus necessary to push and pull oven cars on and off the transfer car is carried by and movable with the transfer car itself and never subject to the heat of the ovens during annealing operations.

In the embodiment shown here the transfer car -to say at right angles to track I8, is a pair of spaced Lbeams or H`beams 2i! each supporting a rail 2 I, the rails being spaced apart at the gage of the oven cars. It will be understood of course that this is the same gage as the rails I3 at the receiving station and the rails Ia and I Ia. in the ovens. The rails of the transfer car just clear the ends of the rails to and from which the oven cars must be moved so that there is no difliculty in transferring cars as subsequently described.

Parallel to the rails 2I and in the present embodiment midway between them, a pairof channels 22 are fixed to the frame in spaced back to At severalpoints along these channels fixed blocks 23 support rotatable anged rollers 24 which engage the lower face of the anges of the I-beam members 25 which form part of a hollow structural beam ram 25 which is thereby supported for reciprocating movement transversely of track I8 and to either side thereof as indicated by the dot-dash lines of Fig. 3. The bottom member of thehollow beam is a heavy plate 26a to which the I-beam members 25 are welded. The beam 26 extends endwise substan tially the full width of the transfer car as will appear from Figs. 2 and 3. Extending longitudinally of the bottom plate is a downwardly facing rack 21 which extends almost the full length of the beam and which meshes with a pinion 28 located substantially midway between the rails of track I8 and rotatably mounted in suitable brackets of the frame I6. Means is provided for rotating this pinion in either direction and C011- nected with its shaft 28a, as will presently appear.

Mounted within the hollow beam 2E for move. ment therealong is a dolly carriage 29. riage is supported on four flanged wheels 3i) which ride on the inner bottom flanges of the I-beam members 25. The carriage has Yan upstanding central lug 23a on which is pivotally mounted a bifurcated lug 3|. This lug has a notch 3| a. on its upper face adaptedtoA engageY suitably located projections 32 on the end sills of the oven cars 33. The lug is pivotally mounted by means of a shaft34 which extends parallel tothe beam 26 and which has extension shafts '34a to the ends of which are attachedhandles 34D. The lug is so lcounterbalance'd relative to shaft 34 that it will stay either in the upright position shown in the various views orin -a'more or lless horizontal position to one side thereof shown in dotted lines, Fig. 5, where it is adapted to pass by the projections '32 on the oven cars. When the dolly is at either end of the oven car (such as at its left end as shown in dot-dash lines, Fig. 3), one of the handles lies conveniently beyondthe end of the oven car so that an operator may easily set the lug 34 in any 'desired-position.

The dolly carriage 29 is so connected with the beam or ram 26 that upon movement of the beam in one direction the dolly Ycarriage moves in the same direction but with double the movement. The arrangement for Ythis purpose comprises a substantially endless flexible connectingcable or chain attached to opposite ends of the dolly carriage then passing over pulleys or sprockets Vnear the ends of the beam'26 and then to xed connections on thetransfer car frame. This construction is best seen in Fig. 3 Where `a flexible roller chain -35 is connected at 35 rto one end of the dolly carriage, then passes around thesprocket 31 rotatably mounted on beam 26 near one'end thereof, and the lower stretch of the chain then extends to a point B'ilwhere it is fastened to the frame of the transfer car. A similar vchain 35 is connected to ythe other endvof the dolly carriage in the same manner. It results'from this construction that if the dolly carriage is moved to engage the lug-3| with the projection 32 at Vthe leftend ofthe oven car as shown in full lines in Fig, 3, then when the beam 26 is moved toward the right the oven car will be carried by the dolly Vto the dot-dash position of Fig. 3 inside the oven II. Then the lug 3| is disengaged from projection 32-and the dolly carriage land ram are returned to the full line position of Fig. 3.

The drive means for-pinion `28 .(for movingram 26) might be an-individual motor for that purpose but-in the form here shown ya single reversible motor 38 is utilized for the double purnose of rotating pinion 28 in'either direction and for driving the transfer car in either direction along track I3. As best seen in Figs. 2 and 5, the motor 38, which is suitably mounted in the transfer car frame, throughsuitable speed reducing gearing 38a. drives the jaw clutch members .39a and 45a. YThe-jaw clutch 40a is adapted to coact with-the jaw clutchmember 43h which in turn drives shaft 4I and through bevel gears f42 This cartransfer car frame.

I engaged and Viceversa.

drives the shaft 23a for rotating pinion 28. Jaw clutch member 39a, coacts with clutch member 39h to drive shaft 43 upon which are mounted two of the wheels I1 for driving the transfer car.

Suitable means is provided for insuring that the transfer car is not driven along track I8 except when the beam or ram 26 is in its central normal position as shown in Fig. 2, and in full lines, Fig. 3. The structure for this purpose comprises a yoke 44 pivotally mounted at 45 in the to their respective shafts to permit movement endwise thereof. Obviously with this construction `when the clutch members 39a and 3317 are engaged the clutch members 40a and 43|) are dis- The yoke member 44 is connected by rod 46 to a lever 41 on the operator's platform. The interlock comprises a bell crank/38 (Figs. 2 and 5) which is mounted on a pivot carried by the transfer car frame and'is connected by a link vv49 'with a second bell crank 51| mounted on the frame. A spring 5I normally biases the bell cranks in clockwise direction 4as viewed in Fig. 5. This causes the arm 48a of bell crank-48 to lie on the right side of the end of yoke -44 (Fig. 2) when-the jaw clutch members 40a .central-position. This means comprises a cam 52 which-engages bell crank 5E) when the ram Y 4reaches central position as shown in Figs. 3 and 5, .thus moving bellcranks 5I! and 48 in a counterclockwise direction against the bias of spring 5I so as to move vthe bell crank arm y48a to the full line position of Fig. 5, whereupon the -yoke 44 may be moved by the operator to engage the jaw clutch-membersSQa and .39h to cause travel of the transfer car.

Means Vis provided for blocking an oven car against movement along the rails 2| of the transfer car. This meanscomprises a pair of pivotally mounted blocks 53, both mounted on a common shaft 54 as seen in Fig. 2, which is connected by a suitable crank arm and link 55 with a .control handle 56 on the operators platform. These blocks rest on rail 2| outside of the oven car wheels so that movement of the car in either direction is prevented. i

Electricity is supplied to motor 38 in any desired manner but as shown a cable reel 51 is mounted on the end of the frame I6 and carries a cable 58 which is connected at one end to a source of electricity and at the other end to motor 38. Control buttons for motor 38 (notshown) are located at the operators platform.

In the operation of this device the transfer' car is moved to the dot-dash position of Fig. 1 where ram 2S is moved toward the left suili- `ciently to place the lug 3| under one of the projectionsfSZ of an oven car at station I2 or I5. One or two reciprocations of the ram is then sufcient to move the oven car onto the transfer car. The blocks 53 are then set and the transfer car :is moved along track I8 until the rails 2| aline with the rails Ilia or IIa of a selected Avoven. The ram 25 isthen inthe full line position of Fig. Sand is run toward the left sufficiently to carry the lug 3| say to'the left-hand This yoke carries the clutch vmembers 3S?) and 4b on opposite sides of pivot 45. These clutch members are of course splined end of oven car 33 as viewed in Fig. 3 so as to engage the projection 32. Operation of ram 26 toward the right as previously described to the dotdash position is then sufficient to move the dolly car and lug 3| to the dot-dash position which carries the oven car 33 into the oven. Lug 3| is then released from projection 32. The ram 26 is then returned to its full line position of Fig. 3 which releases the interlock permitting the operator to engage the drive for the transfer car to move it either back to station I2 or l5 or to another oven for removal of a Car therefrom. In the latter case the transfer car is first spotted before the selected oven, the ram is moved to the dot-dash position of Fig. 3 to engage the lug 3l beneath the projection 32 of a carin the oven. Operation of ram 26 in a direction opposite to that previously described will then carry the oven car into position on the transfer car, after which it may be moved to any desired point. It will be obvious from the position of the parts of the push and pull apparatus and with the projections 32 at each end of the oven cars that the movement of the oven cars with respect to the transfer car may be carried out with equal ease whether the cars are moved in ovens I or Il (Fig. l).

Preferably the oven foundation is provided with a shelf as indicated at 59 (Fig. 3) to permit the extension of ram 26.

Suitable limit Switches (not shown) are provided to stop motor 38 whenever ram 26 reaches the limit of its desired movement either to one side or the other of the transfer car. Preferably also motor 38 is provided with an extended shaft on which is mounted a magnetic brake of ample capacity to decelerate the transfer car with its load.

What I claim is:

1. In material handling apparatus comprising two parallel lines of ovens with a transfer track between and parallel to said lines together with a transfer car movable on said track, there being rails on said car and in said ovens adapted for movement of an oven car between the transfer car and an oven alined therewith, the combination of a hollow structural beam having inwardly and outwardly extending flanges, roller members on said transfer car engaging one of said flanges and supporting said beam for reciprocation at right angles to said lines of ovens, a' dolly carriage having wheels travelling on the other of said flanges, a rotatable member mounted near each end of said beam, two flexible connecting members, said connecting membersbeing fastened to opposite ends of said dolly carriage and each extending thence over one of said rotatable members and having its other end xed to said transfer car, a rack extending longitudinally of said beam, a pinion located -centrally of said transfer car and engaging said rack, and means for driving said pinion.

2. Material handling apparatus, comprising a transfer car movable along a path and provided with rails extending transversely to said path, an oven car movable on said rails and approximately as long as the transfer oar is wide, ovens and receiving stations, some located on one side and some on the other side of said path, and both provided with rails adapted to register with those on the transfer car, a ram movable on the transfer car parallel to its rails and endwise in either direction beyond its sides, a dolly movable along the ram and normally lying intermediate lts ends and arranged for push and pull engagement with either end of the oven car, means connecting the dolly, ram and transfer car and compelling movement of the dolly by movement of the ram with dolly movement relative. to the ram equal to and in the same direction as ram movement relative to the transfer car, and operating mechanism connected to the ram intermediate the sides of the transfer car.

3. Material handling apparatus, comprising a transfer car movable along a, path and provided with track rails extending trnsversely to said path, an oven car mounted on said rails and having its length of the same order as the width of the transfer car, ovens and receiving stations, some located on one side and some on the other side of said path, and. both provided with rails adapted to register with those on the transfer car, a ram mounted on the transfer car for movement parallel to its rails and endwise in either direction beyond its sides, a dolly movable along the ram and located at the center thereof when the ram center lies midway between the transfer car sides, oven car engaging means on the dolly, means at each end of the oven car adapted for push o r pull engagement with said engaging means, two rotatable members one mounted at each end of the ram, two flexible members each extending from the dolly around one of said rotatable members to a xed point located neaw the middle of the transfer car, and operating mechanism having an operating connection with the ram located substantially mid- Y way between the sides of the transfer car for producing endwise movement of the ram in either direction.

4. Material handling apparatus, comprising a transfer car movable along a line of ovens, an oven car on the transfer car adapted to be moved into any one of said ovens, a ram mounted upon said car for endwise movement from a normal retracted position within to an advance position beyond the sides thereof for operating the oven car, operating means for moving the ram, operating means for moving the transfer car, means arranged when actuated to selectively render either operating means effective, and means operated by the ram and arranged when the ram is in advance position to prevent actuation of said last named means in such manner as to `cause transfer car movement.

5. Material handling apparatus, comprising a transfer car movable along a line of ovens, an oven car on the transfer car adapted to be moved into any one of said ovens, a ram mounted upon said car for endwise movement from a normal retracted position within to an advance position beyond the sides thereof for operating the oven car, operating means for moving the ram, operating means for moving the transfer car, means arranged when actuated to selectively render either operating means effective, and means operated by the ram and so arranged as to permit actuation of the last named means in such manner as to cause transfer car movement only when the ram is in normal position.

EUGENE W. SCHELLENTRAGER. 

